The army is ramping up combat training amid growing Indo-Pacific security risks.
Senior commanders say the pressure on our defence forces is greater than at any point in recent memory, citing a dangerous strategic backdrop of Chinese expansion in the Pacific and an increasingly unstable world order.
Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp told Mike Hosking we actually had a much bigger deployment in the first part of the century, but pressures have shifted.
He says uncertainty has replaced predictability, which has created a level of anxiety everyone's experiencing.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Mike Hosking Breakfast